FIELD AND STUDY 



of five songs before your door till you are fain to 

 cry out, "Oh, do take a rest!" But from first to 

 last, from April to October, or November, the pres- 

 ence and the voice of the bluebird has the effect 

 of harmony and repose — soothing, tranquillizing. 

 Not a song-bird, strictly speaking, it does not strike 

 an attitude and lift up its voice in a definite series 

 of notes, like the song sparrow, yet its every sound 

 and call is musical, and its every movement har- 

 monious. Our fine songsters play their parts well, 

 but their period of song is brief, while the bluebird 

 — well, is always the bluebird. It keeps its tone 

 and quality the whole season. How engaging is the 

 habit it has in late September or October of coming 

 back to its deserted nesting-places and lingering 

 fondly about them ! One cannot be certain whether 

 it is the parent birds, or some of the young, that 

 return. They peep into the cavity, warble softly to 

 each other, and then take turns entering it briefly. 

 It is emphatically a home bird. In my bird heaven 

 the bluebird shall occupy the nearest porch and 

 shall always comfort me mth his gentleness and 

 coniposure. I should tire of the Old- World lark and 

 the nightingale as hourly companions; they are too 

 sharp and vociferous; but the bluebird is as sooth- 

 ing as the blue sky itself. 



The most amusing bluff that I know in wild na- 

 ture is that put up by the male wasp when you seize 



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